Coloradan safe after 4 snowy days in vehicle

A little preparation and plenty of snacks kept Ladeane Long safe while she was snowbound in her vehicle for four days.

Long, 42, was rescued exhausted but unharmed Saturday when a search party found her Jeep Cherokee stuck on a back road. She had been sitting there since a snowstorm struck Tuesday while she was heading into the mountains to hunt for quartz crystals. She said she knows how to survive in the outdoors and had stocked her car with fuel and a supply of candy and nuts."I had plenty of food and water. So I just hung with the car, and that is what saved me," Long told the Denver Post.

"I put on two pairs of socks, then put plastic bags over the socks and duct-taped my boots," Long said. "I knew if my feet and hands stayed warm, I would last longer."

Long said her family didn't know she had driven up the road alone. They reported her missing after she failed to pick up a relative at Denver International Airport.

A 25-member rescue team set out on snowshoes and in a Sno-Cat, searching her favorite rock-hunting areas, said Don Griffith of Larimer County Emergency Services.